part a: strategic overview - Department of Education

13.9.4 Over-aged Learners
Several of the indicators discussed earlier have mentioned the issue of under- and overage
enrolment in the Eastern Cape education system. Age-specific indicators such as
the Net Intake Rate and Net Enrolment Rate have shown that a sizeable percentage of
enrolment is of inappropriate age. It has been shown that in three districts, the de facto
starting age for primary school is age six, which is not problematic if those learners are
sufficiently prepared and able to proceed through the grades without repetition. What is
more problematic is the problem of over-age learners, who in some cases are two to
three years older than their classmates.
The temporary application of the age-grade admission policy prevented learners who
were younger than seven from entering Grade 1 but the high rates of repetition in later
grades continue to result in large numbers of over-aged learners.
The percentage of over-aged learners reflected in figure 3a show a decreasing trend of
over-aged learners in the public ordinary schools of Eastern Cape. The percentage is a
very crude calculation that looks at an environment where repeaters are not catered for.
The percentages were calculated using the average age in a grade as being 7 years old
in grade 1 (8-year olds and more regarded as over-aged in this analysis), 8 years old in
Grade 2 (9-year olds and more are regarded as over-aged in this analysis), to 18 years
old in Grade 12. This gives an indication that 41% of primary school learners and 56 %
of secondary school learners are over-aged. There is a visible decrease in the number of
over-aged learners in both the primary and secondary phases over the period 2000 to
2004.
This crude calculation does give an indication that the number of over-age learners is
deceasing but the rate or over-age learners was still higher in the former DET schools.
There were a higher number of over-age learners in grade 10 and grade 11 than those
in grade 12. It is in these grades that there are increases of over-age learners in the
other former departments and the new schools. The notion of holding learners back and
not promoting them into grade 12 becomes much more evident through these statistics.
The average age of grade 12 learners has improved over the last few years. The
percentage of learners who were 18 and younger is just over 55% in 2004 as illustrated
in Graphs 10 and Graph 11.
Graph 9: Drop-out Rate : Eastern Cape 2000-2003
120%
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
Gr
1
Dropout Rate: Eastern Cape 2000-2003
Gr
2
Gr
3
Gr
4
Gr
5
2003 26% 6% 5% 7% 8% 7% 7% 10% 12% 16% 23%
2002 25% 6% 7% 7% 7% 9% 8% 7% 15% 21% 24%
2001 26% 6% 6% 9% 7% 8% -1% 15% 13% 18% 22%
2000 20% 13% 12% 12% 12% 12% 1% 15% 17% 23% 21%
1999 15% 5% 4% 4% 4% 5% 1% 7% 5% 15% 15%
5 Year ECDoE Strategic Plan for 2005/06 to 2009/10. March 2006 Page 80
5 Year ECDoE Strategic Plan for 2005-06 to 2009-10. 21 F (4)Page 76
Gr
6
Grade
Gr
7
Gr
8
Gr
9
Gr
10
Gr
11
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
part C: background information